Chapter 3. Dialectology meets sociophonetics
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Brendan Regan
Abstract
This article analyzes the social perceptions of ceceo and distinción in the town of Lepe, Spain using a matched-guise experiment created by digitally manipulating spontaneous speech from twelve speakers, varying only in realizations of syllable initial coronal fricatives. Based on an analysis of 92 listeners’ evaluations, the speaker guises with distinción are rated as higher status, more educated, more urban, and more formal and are assigned more occupational prestige than those with ceceo. Additionally, listeners with more years lived away from Lepe perceived these differences more so than those with little to no years lived away from Lepe. The implications are three-fold: (i) listeners in Lepe evaluate the national standard feature of distinción as more prestigious than the traditional dialect feature of ceceo; (ii) it can be suggested that time away from Lepe impacts listeners’ social evaluations of ceceo and distinción; and, (iii) even smaller non-urban communities are susceptible to changing language attitudes. Such differences in the perceived social value of these phonetic norms likely contribute to the ongoing dialect convergence of ceceo to distinción in Lepe.
Abstract
This article analyzes the social perceptions of ceceo and distinción in the town of Lepe, Spain using a matched-guise experiment created by digitally manipulating spontaneous speech from twelve speakers, varying only in realizations of syllable initial coronal fricatives. Based on an analysis of 92 listeners’ evaluations, the speaker guises with distinción are rated as higher status, more educated, more urban, and more formal and are assigned more occupational prestige than those with ceceo. Additionally, listeners with more years lived away from Lepe perceived these differences more so than those with little to no years lived away from Lepe. The implications are three-fold: (i) listeners in Lepe evaluate the national standard feature of distinción as more prestigious than the traditional dialect feature of ceceo; (ii) it can be suggested that time away from Lepe impacts listeners’ social evaluations of ceceo and distinción; and, (iii) even smaller non-urban communities are susceptible to changing language attitudes. Such differences in the perceived social value of these phonetic norms likely contribute to the ongoing dialect convergence of ceceo to distinción in Lepe.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Spain
- Chapter 1. The role of social cues in the perception of final vowel contrasts in Asturian Spanish 15
- Chapter 2. Covert and overt attitudes towards Catalonian Spanish laterals and intervocalic fricatives 39
- Chapter 3. Dialectology meets sociophonetics 85
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South America
- Chapter 4. Regional identity in Highland Ecuador 125
- Chapter 5. Spanish and Palenquero 153
- Chapter 6. The role of social networks in cross-dialectal variation in the perception of the Rioplatense assibilated pre-palatal [ʃ] 187
- Chapter 7. The social perception of intervocalic /k/ voicing in Chilean Spanish 211
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North America
- Chapter 8. The sociophonetic perception of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States 239
- Chapter 9. Spoken word recognition and shesheo in Northwestern Mexico 265
- Chapter 10. The perception-production connection 287
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Future Directions
- Chapter 11. Of intersectionality, replicability, and holistic perspectives 315
- Chapter 12. Future directions for sociophonetic research in Spanish 327
- Index 341
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Spain
- Chapter 1. The role of social cues in the perception of final vowel contrasts in Asturian Spanish 15
- Chapter 2. Covert and overt attitudes towards Catalonian Spanish laterals and intervocalic fricatives 39
- Chapter 3. Dialectology meets sociophonetics 85
-
South America
- Chapter 4. Regional identity in Highland Ecuador 125
- Chapter 5. Spanish and Palenquero 153
- Chapter 6. The role of social networks in cross-dialectal variation in the perception of the Rioplatense assibilated pre-palatal [ʃ] 187
- Chapter 7. The social perception of intervocalic /k/ voicing in Chilean Spanish 211
-
North America
- Chapter 8. The sociophonetic perception of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States 239
- Chapter 9. Spoken word recognition and shesheo in Northwestern Mexico 265
- Chapter 10. The perception-production connection 287
-
Future Directions
- Chapter 11. Of intersectionality, replicability, and holistic perspectives 315
- Chapter 12. Future directions for sociophonetic research in Spanish 327
- Index 341
